Clooney, who has worked on both sides of the camera, offered a different perspective. As an actor, he said, he inherently has faith in directors whose work he admires. "If I've seen movies of yours that I like and think are good," he said, "then I automatically have a trust."

One of the challenges Clooney has faced in his transition to directing has been earning that same measure of trust with his own casts. "That's a tricky thing to do," he said, but he attempts to do so by keeping things moving, having a point of view and being confident in his choices. "If actors smell blood in the water, the first thing they do is sort of take over," he said.

Hear more of what Clooney and his peers had to say in the video above, and check back tomorrow for a new video from the roundtable.

Filmmaking is by nature a collaborative process, but when people think of a movie, it's usually the cast — more so than the editor, writer, cinematographer or even director — that pops into their head first.

Filmmakers George Clooney ("The Ides of March"), Stephen Daldry ("Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"), Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist"), Alexander Payne ("The Descendants") and Martin Scorsese ("Hugo") sat down with The Times' John Horn at the recent Envelope Directors Roundtable and talked about the importance and challenges of assembling a good cast.

For Payne, the actors are at the core of any film. He said, "No matter how well lit and shot and everything, [people will ask] 'Who's in it? Are they good? Do you believe them?' They are the primary conveyors of the tone of the film, from the director to the audience through the actors."

The cast is "indispensible," Scorsese chimed in. "You can have different cinematographers … you can have a different director, literally, but you need the actor up there. You need them."

See more of what Payne, Scorsese and the others had to say in the video above, and check back next week for two more clips from the round table.

Never work with children or animals, says the old show-business adage — advice largely ignored by five of this year's top directors.

In a visit to the recent Envelope Directors Roundtable, filmmakers Stephen Daldry ("Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"), Martin Scorsese ("Hugo"), Alexander Payne ("The Descendants"), Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist") and George Clooney ("The Ides of March") spoke to The Times' John Horn about some of the unique challenges of working with kids and dogs.

In the case of Daldry and Thomas Horn (no relation to John), the 14-year-old star of "Extremely Loud," the director had to work around regulated hours, schooling sessions and meal breaks. "You don't have them for long," Daldry said of child actors.

Luckily, Thomas' talent made up for the extra work. "In terms of his professionalism and dedication and his preparation and his charm on set and his clarity and intelligence — no issues at all," Daldry said of the young actor, a first-timer. "He was fantastic."

Given all the moving parts involved in making a motion picture, it's inevitable that things will go wrong and bad days will be had. When that happens, it's up to the director to get things back on track.

At this year's third annual Envelope Directors Roundtable, filmmakers Alexander Payne ("The Descendants"), Stephen Daldry ("Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"), Martin Scorsese ("Hugo"), George Clooney ("The Ides of March") and Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist") shared some of their setbacks and off days with Times film reporter John Horn.

Payne groused about the logistical nightmare of shooting on the water: "For a nice little scene of a couple people spreading ashes," he said, "it's like we call out the damn National Guard."

Daldry recounted a time when David Kross, a young actor in his previous film "The Reader," broke his arm shooting a stunt that didn't even make the final cut of the movie. Fortunately, though Kross was initially expected to be out three months, "He was back the next day," Daldry said.

Photo: George Clooney, left, Martin Scorsese, Stephen Daldry, Michel Hazanavicius, and Alexander Payne joined The Times' John Horn, third from left, to talk about the art of moviemaking. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Even big-time filmmakers aren't immune to a bit of anxiety when it comes to the first day on set. One prominent director admits that all the apparatus of a Hollywood production puts him on edge: "I'm always fearing it's going to mar the intimacy of what I'm hoping to shoot."

Another finds himself grappling with self-doubt: "It's really scary for me. I think to myself, 'Why did I want that? Why did I ask all these people to make something?' "

At The Times' recent Directors Roundtable, filmmakers Alexander Payne ("The Descendants"), Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist"), George Clooney ("The Ides of March"), Stephen Daldry ("Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close") and Martin Scorsese ("Hugo") talked about how nerve-racking it can be to start a new film, and how they deal with it.

Daldry and Scorsese said they often ease into a shoot with tests, rehearsals or single shots. On the other hand, Payne acknowledged that sometimes one has to dive right into a big scene, as logistical issues forced him to do on "The Descendants." And Clooney shared a crafty directing trick he borrowed from Sidney Lumet.

Hear more of what they had to say in the video below. Check back for more clips throughout the week.

Every film begins with a decision — not whom to cast, where to shoot or how much to spend, but simply what to make. At The Times' third annual Directors Roundtable, five of the year's top filmmakers came together to discuss their current Oscar-contending films and their creative processes, which start with that first choice of what story to tell.

In this first excerpt from the roundtable, directors George Clooney ("The Ides of March"), Stephen Daldry ("Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"), Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist"), Alexander Payne ("The Descendants") and Martin Scorsese ("Hugo") talk to The Times' John Horn about how they decide which movies to bring to life.

"I've been lucky enough to experience different reasons for making pictures," Scorsese says. "Primarily the ones that I've always been very passionate about are the ones I've simply had to get made at one point or another, and I was pretty lucky to get them made over the years."

Hazanavicius adds, "There's a hunch, something that tells you there's a good movie to make, and there's a movie I can be comfortable with for two years or three years [while making it] and actually the rest of your life, because you have to live with it."

See all of what the directors had to say in the video below, and check back every day this week for a new clip from the roundtable.

Three days after earning a feature film nomination for the Directors Guild of America Award for "Hugo," Oscar-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese is back in the guild's nomination circle.

Scorsese earned a nomination for outstanding directorial achievement in documentary Thursday for "George Harrison: Living in the Material World." It is his 10th DGA nomination; he won the feature film award five years ago for "The Departed."

Other documentary nominees are Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky for "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory," Steve James for "The Interrupters," James Marsh for "Project Nim" and Richard Press for "Bill Cunningham New York." Press is the only first-time nominee among the five.

The awards will be handed out at a ceremony at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Jan. 28.

Now let us just say from the outset that it is possible that Directors Guild of America voters simply liked David Fincher's mesmerizing way with bleakness in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" more than Steven Spielberg's shout-outs to John Ford in "War Horse." Certainly, members didn't share Fincher's sentiments that "Dragon Tattoo" might be just a tad too dark for awards consideration.

But there has to be something more to today's DGA Awards nominations that put Fincher in alongside Martin Scorsese ("Hugo"), Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist"), Alexander Payne ("The Descendants") and Woody Allen ("Midnight in Paris"), doesn't there? DGA voters clearly dig Fincher, handing him his third nomination in four years. Of course, they haven't liked him enough to actually give him the award in this category, even last year when most had Fincher winning for "The Social Network." Could this year's nomination be viewed as an attempt to put that whole giving it to Tom Hooper thing behind them? Or could it merely be another signal of a changing of the guard? (Spielberg hasn't been nominated since 2005's "Munich" -- not that he has given voters much reason or occasion to look his way.)

Fincher won't win this year, either. But, taken with the Producers Guild nomination for "Tattoo," it is possible that both he and the movie will now show up among the Oscar anointed. More often than not, four of the five DGA nominees go on to receive Oscar nods. Figuring that Scorsese, Hazanavicius and Payne are locks and that Allen seems increasingly likely to receive his first director's nomination since "Bullets Over Broadway," the question now is: Will the DGA slate sweep in clean with the motion picture academy, as has happened twice in the past decade? Or can Spielberg slip in, aided by the academy's older sentimentalists?

A third option and, admittedly, one that with today's news and previous snubs from the PGA, Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild seems something of a pipe dream, is that academy voters will go the auteur route and nominate Terrence Malick. "The Tree of Life" has its hard-core disciples, but they are vastly outnumbered by those who hit the eject button once the dinosaurs showed up. Oscar prognosticators have long assumed that "Tree" had enough bedrock support to win nominations for picture (provided devotees slotted it No. 1 or No. 2 on their ballots), director and cinematography. Now only director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki seems a safe bet.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday afternoon that 10 films remain in contention for the visual effects Academy Award. They are: "Captain America: The First Avenger," "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2," "Hugo," "Mission: Impossible –- Ghost Protocol," "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," "Real Steel," "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," "The Tree of Life" and "X-Men: First Class."

The entire membership of the visual effects branch of the academy will be able to see 10-minute excerpts from the films on Jan. 19. After the screenings, these members will vote to nominate five films for the 84th annual Academy Award.

The Oscar nominations will be announced on Jan. 24; the awards will be handed out during a live telecast on ABC on Feb. 26 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland.

Martin Scorsese, the director of such films as “Goodfellas,” “Raging Bull” and the recently released “Hugo,” will receive the Music+Film Award at this year’s Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, according to a recent announcement by the Broadcast Film Critics Assn. The award honors a filmmaker whose use of music heightens the impact of their cinematic storytelling.

The BFCA cited Scorsese’s dramatic films such as “Mean Streets” and “The Departed” as well as his documentary and concert films, including “George Harrison: Living in the Material World” and “The Last Waltz,” as examples of his skill in combining film and music.

Joey Berlin, president of the BFCA, called Scorsese “one of the greatest filmmakers of all time” in a prepared statement.

Scorsese has been on a roll lately. The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures recently named “Hugo” the best film of the year, and the 3-D tale about an orphan living in a Parisian train station is anticipated as an Oscar contender.

The nominees for this year’s Critics' Choice Movie Awards will be announced Tuesday. The awards ceremony takes place at the Hollywood Palladium on Jan. 12 and will air on VH1 at 8 p.m.